


The Activist and the Captain

by ai08



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 19:56:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13488648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ai08/pseuds/ai08
Summary: Captain Graves spends more time thinking about the infuriating activist/criminal than he ever has about any romantic interest. That should probably give him a clue... But it doesn't.Modern, nonmagical AU except for the animals. Officer!Graves and AnimalRightsActivist!Newt.





	The Activist and the Captain

Newt had just stepped out of the shower when he heard a knock at the door. He quickly threw on some pants and his bath robe and, toweling at his hair, made his way into the hall.

 

And promptly locked the deadbolt when he peered through the peep hole.

 

Percival Graves, the man who had been a thorn in his side for _months_ when he had first moved to New York City last year, stood on the other side of his door. Newt contimplated pretending he wasn't home, but Graves was persistent. He knocked on the door with the side of his fist again, making Newt jump a bit. 

 

"Scamander, I can hear you," Graves said, annoyed. "Open the door."

 

Newt, a little paniced, glanced around his apartment. Had his niffler escaped again? No, Newt spotted her on the kitchen table, counting her treasures.

 

...Some of which looked new. 

 

Newt narrowed his eyes at the little creature.  "What did you take _this_ time?" he hissed. 

 

The niffler just blinked at him and slowly began to pocket all of her precious possessions, ignoring the question. 

 

Graves gave the door another loud knock. "Scamander. Don't make me knock this door in," he warned, voice low and emotionless just like Newt remembered.

 

Newt aggressively gestured for the niffler to not move an inch, but it was already waddling towards the kitchen window. He closed his eyes, sighed, and turned back to the door. 

 

"How can I help you, officer?" he called, voice light and friendly. Maybe if he was cooperative Graves would leave soon. Afterall, he had never been able to catch him bending the law in the past, no matter how hard he had tried, and now that his animal shelter was 100% by the book (okay, to be fair it was more like 90% by the book, but no one needed to know that) he was certain Graves had nothing on him.

 

Unless the niffler had decided to swipe the other man's pocket watch. Again. But that hadn't happened since Graves had tried to shut him down for suspected terrorist activity. His cheeks heated up in anger and embarassment, thinking about that. As if he would ever do anything to hurt an animal.

 

Just because he was raising and nurturing a swooping evil did _not_ mean that he was in cohorts with any unsavory groups. It wasn't the swooping evil's fault they were sometimes used as weapons. Or that they were poisonous. Or that they were capable of eating brains. Or that they had the word evil in their name. 

 

They were just misunderstood. And people like Graves would _never_ understand, so it was Newt's job to protect them.

 

And anyway he had a permit for the swooping evil now, sort of,  so Graves didn't have a leg to stand on.

 

"This isn't about your creatures," Graves sighed. 

 

Newt slowly opened the door. Noticing his slight state of undress, Graves tried to be polite and averted his gaze, the rising color in his cheeks going largely unnoticed by the younger man. 

 

"I- came to apologize," Graves said, stiffly. 

 

Newt's eyes widened. Of all the reasons for Graves to seek him out, the thought of the other man apologizing to him had never crossed his mind. Newt looked at the older man for a moment. Graves seemed exceedingly uncomfortable, at least as uncomfortable as a statue could appear, but it was enough to make Newt uncomfortable again. 

 

"Um," he mumbled, "What...?"

 

"Commissioner Picquery told me you spoke with her during the investigation of your... animals. She said that you spoke highly of me and, considering the... investigation I led against you, I wanted to extend my sincerest apologies."

 

There was an awkward silence for a moment. 

 

Graves cleared his throat. "I also wanted to say that I have recently been promoted to police chief so try to stay out of trouble. My replacement hasn't been named yet but I can gaurentee whoever it is will _not_ be as lenient as I have been with your blatant disregard for the law."

 

The dozens upon dozens of fines Graves had personally slapped him with, not to mention last year's investigation... _That_ was Graves idea of leniency? And he was apologizing _now_ for that horrible ordeal, nearly a year later...?

 

"Ah... Congratulations then, Officer Graves," Newt said to Graves' polished black dress shoes, uncertain of what else to say.

 

Newt hadn't exactly spoken highly of the police officer, per se. Picquery had asked him about how Graves had handled the investigation after his innocence had been proven, and Newt had been honest. While Graves had been dead set on throwing him in jail and taking his creatures away, he never once tried to go around the law to obtain his goals. Graves was stoic to a fault, and scary as hell, but he was a hard working man of principle, even if he was a little overly obsessed with obeying the law. Even prejudiced ones against his precious creatures.

 

"It's Captain Graves, now," the dark haired man corrected awkwardly, moments after Newt had spoken. 

 

"Oh."

 

More silence.

 

"Did you need anything... else...?" Newt asked, itching to check on his niffler. It had long since slipped out the window and Newt couldn't afford to replace anymore damaged property. Explaining to his downstairs neighbor that it hadn't meant any harm when it had tried to rip a gold capped tooth out of her mouth hadn't been very fun.

 

Newt glanced at Graves' face. it was just as stoney and emotionless as he remembered and the younger man was starting to get nervous again. 

 

Graves caught his gaze for a moment but Newt looked away before he could say anything.

 

"No," the newly appointed police chief finally responded to Newt's question. Then after a beat, "just stay out of trouble." 

 

And with that, he was gone.

 

-

 

"Captain... Did you go by Newt's apartment last night?" 

 

"Hello, Officer Goldstein. What do you need?" Percival greeted, ignoring Tina's question entirely. 

 

Tina looked down, suddenly losing her nerve. She knew the question was out of line. Still, Newt was her best friend and she wanted to make sure that everything was alright. She steeled her nerves and tried again. 

 

"I have personally made sure that Newt's animal shelter isn't breaking any laws. And he's not harboring any dangerous animals without a permit anymore. Is something else going on, sir?" 

 

"I can assure you that everything is fine, Officer Goldstein," he said, not looking up from his paperwork. "Did you need anything?"

 

Tina hovered for a moment, impersonating a gold fish, then scurried out of her superior's office with a mumbled, "No, sir."

 

As soon as she left Percival rubbed his hands over his face and sighed. It had been foolish of him to stop by Scamander's home last night. 

 

He had always found the younger man to be annoying, with his nearly constant disregard for the law and even at times his own safety. But after time the animal lover had almost begun to grow on him. Unfortunately for both of them, Scamander didn't know how to interact with humans very well, and Percival didn't know how to interact with them either outside of enforcing the law, and so their interactions were limited to the times when Newt did something idiotic. Like when he misplaced his INVISIBLE ANIMAL. Or when his damned niffler broke into a pawn shop. 

 

But then Newt had befriended the Goldstein sisters, and with his new found handlers, Percival's encounters with the red head had become few and far between. 

 

And when Percival got promoted to police chief he realized that he would most likely never deal with Scamander directly again if and when he broke the law. And he promptly came to find that he didn't like that prospect in the least. He just couldn't figure out _why_.  

 

 


End file.
